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    Tips to Get a Virtual Line Return Time at Epic Universe

    By Webmaster

    Since Universal Epic Universe Annual Passholder Previews (and a few other groups) began on April 17th, the highly anticipated attraction Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry has exclusively operated with a Virtual Line. Unfortunately, obtaining a return time has proven to be somewhat difficult, and there isn't exactly a sure-fire way to obtain a slot. We've been continually monitoring the process, recording availability data to look to for any advantages, have developed free alerts to hel
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Data Analysis

Tips to Get a Virtual Line Return Time at Epic Universe

Since Universal Epic Universe Annual Passholder Previews (and a few other groups) began on April 17th, the highly anticipated attraction Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry has exclusively operated with a Virtual Line. Unfortunately, obtaining a return time has proven to be somewhat difficult, and there isn't exactly a sure-fire way to obtain a slot. We've been continually monitoring the process, recording availability data to look to for any advantages, have developed free alerts to hel
Data Analysis

Disney World March 2025 Wait Time Comparisons

Now that March has come and gone, lets take a look at the wait time data across Walt Disney World, and see how it compared to 2024 and other years. March is home to the beginning of Spring Break season, which generally means higher crowds (at times). The Magic Kingdom Magic Kingdom wait times in March continued to trend below previous years, including almost 12% than March 2024. Going back to 2014, average wait times were some of their lowest of the period (which has been the trend for
Data Analysis

Best & Worst Days to Visit Disney World in 2025

With three full months now complete in 2025, lets take a look at which days of the week have had the lowest and highest wait times so far at each Walt Disney World theme park. Disney's Animal Kingdom Wednesdays have had the lowest wait times at Disney's Animal Kingdom, averaging 35 minutes, compared to Saturdays, the highest, at 49 minutes. The Magic Kingdom Sundays have had the lowest wait times at the Magic Kingdom, averaging 24 minutes, compared to Fridays, the
News

It's Really Tough to Be A Bug

It's Tough to be a Bug!, a 3-D attraction underneath the Tree of Life at Disney's Animal Kingdom is permanently closing after this Sunday, March 16th. Being a large theater, the attraction is a people eater with a low historical average wait time of only 10 minutes. The highest wait time we've recorded for it is 65 minutes, which briefly occurred in both 2023 and 2024. We experienced the attraction for the final time last week. Here are a few photos from that showing of It's Toug
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News

Research Wait Times By Date

Introducing a new functionality to our Crowd Calendars: detailed wait time data by date. Plan your ultimate vacation by researching current and past wait times for any day of the year for any theme park we track wait times for. To get started, open any of our Crowd Calendars for the park of your choice. When browsing the calendar, click on any of the dates with a wait time shown to be taken to a page showing historical wait times, how the date ranks compared to other dates, model prediction
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News

Virtual Queue Ending for Cosmic Rewind & Tiana

Disney announced today that the Virtual Queue, which required guests to obtain boarding group to be able to ride, is ending after February 24th for both Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT and Tiana's Bayou Adventure at the Magic Kingdom. A standby line will be offered beginning February 25th. Both attractions will maintain a skip-the-line opportunity through Lightning Lane passes. No attraction that has utilized a Virtual Queue has done so as long as Cosmic Rewind, using it sin
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Trip Report

Story Book Dining with Snow White

Late last week, we made a last minute decision to do a character dining dinner for Valentine's Day at Walt Disney World. Story Book Dining at Artist Point with Snow White struck our fancy, but the only available reservation was at 9:00 PM: much too late for two children. To find a better dining time, we setup a Walt Disney World dining alert using the free system on this very site. On the same day, the system returned with a notification that a 4:30 PM reservation was found. I quickly
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News

Magic Kingdom Super Bowl MVP Parade - Jalen Hurts

At the Super Bowl last night in New Orleans, the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Kansas City Chiefs. Jalen Hurts, the Eagles' quarterback, was named the game's Most Valuable Player (MVP). Traditionally, the MVP appears the next day at a Disney park. Since the game was closer to Walt Disney World Resort this year rather than Disneyland, the Super Bowl MVP appeared today in a special parade at the Magic Kingdom! Amongst a mass of Eagles fans lining the entire parade route, which began
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Data Analysis

WDW Early December Wait Time Comparison

December is an extra magical time of year at Walt Disney World with the theme parks and resort as a whole decorated for the holidays. We are currently in the calm before the storm of that is the busiest time of the year, between Christmas and New Years. How are wait times in 2024 comparing to last year so far? Across the board, wait times are down 11% to 21%! See more details on each park below. Disney's Hollywood Studios Hollywood Studios Date Range: 12/01/2024 to 12/13/2
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Trip Report

Universal Orlando Decorations 2024

On a chilly, but bright & sunny morning, we set off to document all of the holiday decorations around both Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida at the Universal Orlando Resort! Both parks are beautifully decorated with wreaths, garland, and trees about outside and inside. It's also Grinchmas in Seuss Landing! Let's take a look at some of the highlights below. Full photo galleries are also available: Universal Studios Gallery Islands of Adventure Gallery Islands o
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Data Analysis

WDW Early September Wait Time Comparison

One-third of September has already come and gone across Walt Disney World. September typically has the lowest average wait time across the resort, and the data so far in 2024 has continued that trend. Primary reason why?  School is back across the United States. Below, the weekly average wait time for Walt Disney World for each week in 2024 is graphed. The past two weeks and the current week are the lowest that have been seen yet. How do the wait time at each theme park compare to past years for
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Data Analysis

Disney World August 2024 Wait Time Comparison

August has come and gone at Walt Disney World, and Spooky Season has begun. Many schools have returned and most will in the next few days, leading to what is usually a quieter September. But remember that quieter does not mean dead; it means lower wait times, on average, than other parts of the year. Let's compare August 2024 wait times to other Augusts in recent years. Animal Kingdom August 2024 vs: Average Wait: Difference of -5.5 min / -14.6% August
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Data Analysis

WDW Wait Times on Halloween Party Days

It is early August... so Spooky Season has begun... at least at the Magic Kingdom within the Walt Disney World Resort. Beginning Friday, August 9th, Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) is back for 2024, running through Halloween.  Typical party days are each Friday, Sunday, and Tuesday night, with a few other dates sprinkled in. An often asked question is how do the Halloween parties affect wait times across Walt Disney World? Lets take a look at some data from the past couple years t
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Data Analysis

Disney World July Wait Time Analysis

July at Walt Disney World saw a fundamental change to how guests visit the theme parks with the introduction of the Lightning Lane Passes, which brough back prebooking of attractions with Multi Passes and Single Passes that disappeared with FastPass+ in March 2020. Only a week in, it is too early to tell what difference the new system is making in terms of overall wait times. We'll have more on that in the future, but, in the mean time, we are now tracking all current and future date Lightning L
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Data Analysis

LLMP vs Genie+ Availability Comparisons

On the second day of the Lightning Lane Multi Pass (LLMP) system, we can compare Lightning Lane availability on the last day of Genie+ operation (July 23rd) to the first one and half days of LLMP to identify any interesting features or trends. Lightning Lane availability can vary due to a wide range of factors; for this analysis, we tried to pick scenarios where typical Genie+ behavior was observed on its last day. In the following graphs, each dot represents a time of Lightning Lane availabilit
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News

Lightning Lane Multi Pass Pricing

Below, find the current and future pricing for Lightning Lane Multi Pass at Walt Disney World Resort. These are the current prices directly from the My Disney Experience app's API. It appears that the initial pricing for LLMP reflects the current Genie+ pricing scheme. However, the Park Hopper option is gone. Any guest with a Park Hopper ticket can book a Lightning Lane at another park after redeeming 1 Lightning Lane pass at the first park. This provides the opportunity for additional value com
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News

Video: Lightning Lane Multi Pass Purchasing by Date

While the system doesn't launch until Wednesday, July 24th, Lightning Lane Single Pass and Multi Pass functionality has been added to the backend of the My Disney Experience app for Walt Disney World. Take a look at what the selection process will be like when it launches and some potential prices (which, we assume are still subject to change) in the videos below. llmp_video.webm   mdx_screen_720.webm   llmp_twitter.webm    
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Trip Report

Quick Magic Kingdom Trip Report 7/6/24

When you are a local, you have the advantage of taking a look at the current Disney World wait time data in the afternoon and deciding to hop on over. Earlier this afternoon, we did just that. We saw that wait times at the Magic Kingdom were well below average and decided to visit for a couple of hours (which is perfect in the heat of the summer)! Upon entering the peak at 2:48 PM, we were able to still grab a boarding group for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure as group 150. We decided to head
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Data Analysis

Another Slow Fourth at Disney World

Happy Fourth of July! Like last year's well publicized low wait times on Fourth of July that prompted several national news articles, 2024 is following the same trajectory at Walt Disney World. Comparing Fourth of July's going back to 2014, last year (in gray) and this year (in black) are at the bottom of the resort-wide average wait time profile graph. Looking at all average wait time profiles for each day of the past year, today, the black line, is in the lower quadrant of the data.
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Data Analysis

Disney World Half-Year Analysis 2024

Six months down, and six more to go in 2024: we are officially half-way through the year! How do wait times across Walt Disney World Resort compare to previous years up to this point? We dive into the data to find out! Resort wide, the pinnacle of post-pandemic travel was in winter and spring of 2022. Demand was very high coming out of a couple vacationless years for many (often referred to as the "revenge travel" period). January has had higher wait times the past two years than 2022 and b
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Data Analysis

Universal Orlando June '24 Analysis

Summer arrived last month at Universal Orlando Resort with intense heat and the stormy season began. What were wait times like, how did they compare to the past, and what were the lightest & busiest days to go at Universal Orlando Resort? Lets take a look at the data to find out! A resort-wide view of the daily average wait times shows a slight upward trend in wait times over the course of the month. Overall, wait times were up 2 minutes over May, but still the 2nd lowest, based o
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Data Analysis

Disneyland June '24 Analysis

June has come and gone across Disneyland Resort in 2024. What were wait times like, how did they compare to the past, how was Lightning Lane availability, and what were the lightest & busiest days to go? Lets take a look at the data to find out! A resort-wide view of the daily average wait times shows (above) that typically Mondays and Tuesdays were the busiest days with the highest average wait times. The last three Sundays of the month were particularly light, thanks, in part, t
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